This invention relates to surfactant solutions useable as laundry pre-spotters and for other fabric cleaning applications. More particularly, it relates to pre-spotters that can be placed on fabric many hours and/or a few days before laundering.
Laundry detergents alone are often deficient in cleaning stains due to grass, blood, oil, greases, and certain other organic sources. Various compositions have therefore been developed as "pre-spotters". See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,438,009; 4,595,527; 4,749,516; and 5,288,420. The disclosure of these patents (and of all other publications described herein) are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Pre-spotters are usually applied directly to difficult stains shortly before the normal washing process. However, those pre-spotters which are the most effective against stains can sometimes also lift the dye from cloth so as to create an undesirable faded area. A more serious complication is that pre-spotters are often not very effective if the fabric is not laundered relatively promptly after using the pre-spotter.
It can thus be seen that there is a need for an improved fabric cleaning solution.